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Metagame Strategies
In this article, there will be a variety of strategies. People are free to post their strategies here, although FailingAtFailing (Austin.Micheal.Seto) highly recommends posting your strategy at the forums before posting them here, as we want strategies here to be deemed viable by the community, and thus actually helpful. You can click this sentence to go to the forums. Also, please check to see if a strategy similar to your strategy has been posted here. Duplicate strategies, or highly similar ones will not help. If you posted your strategy on the forums, please provide a link to your forum topic for reference. Don't make your strategy too specific, it should be flexible and adaptable. General Terms Before you delve into the metagame, you should know some terms. Many abbreviations that may be used in later paragraphs are defined here You should also have a general idea of what units are capable of and how they work together, covered on each unit page of this wiki and in brief here General Tactics These are strategies that should be used almost all the time, if not in every match, as these basic strategies are crucial to success. Usually the ideal builds used by top players and also an additional extra builds that are ideal if used correctly. Kiting Quite possibly the most prominent piece of micro in games featuring Order or the Elementals. It involves a ranged unit moving while attacking. This is obviously very powerful. Backwards Kiting The most common form of kiting. The unit doing the kiting will be running backwards from the enemy. When their reload animation is complete, command them to garrison with the "G" button. They will spin around, fire a projectile and resume moving backwards instantly, while reloading. To fire again, you have to cancel said unit's garrison by telling them to move anywhere that is not inside your castle. Backwards kiting can be done as long as the map allows or until the enemy unit catches up to the kiting unit. Forwards Kiting Less commonly seen, although still done to chase down weakened units. When a unit's reload animation is complete, said unit must be told to fire at a specific enemy. They will pause for a few milliseconds before firing. Once they have fired a projectile, said player must have the unit resume chase. Meat Shield Many units in the game have very low health, so to provide some protection for them (atleast from projectiles) you should have bulkier units placed in front of them. Generally, this consists of both kinds of giants and Speartons. Multiple Speartons in Shield Wall are more effective in the metagame (as of January 10, 2014) due to them being cheaper than giants, more mobile and being able to stun automatically stun multiple oncoming melee attackers with Shield Bash. However, giants have the advantage in pure bulk and being able to protect air units, which Speartons cannot do (One exception to this is when Speartons 'shield' albowtross by swarming around the enemy ranged units blocking them from shooting into the air). Giants also have a unique role in preventing targetted abilities from hitting their intended targets. Basically, put your meat shield unit in front of your frail spell casters or archers. If you are facing targetted ability users such as Shadowrath, Medusa or Marrowkai, you may opt to place your Magikill directly behind your giant (if you have one) so it cannot be clicked. You will still be able to use spells from it with hotkeys, but your opponent will not be able to target it, instead hitting the giant. Having meat shields is extremely beneficial as it saves weaker units and allow those weaker units to do damage as well. Pressuring Also called harassment by some. It's a general fighting philosophy, that if someone is being attacked, they won't be able to focus on anything except defending very easily. Thus, one who has the tower could easily use small forces of ranged units to put force on the other's army and castle by killing miners, destroying fortifications etc. Usually done with the Tower Spawn to reduce losses if the person defending has a castle archer. High ranked players send in a tanking unit (spearton) to tank Castle Archer hits in order to enter the opponent's base and kill miners(economy). Cycling Usually done with Enslaved Giants, although possible in Early-Game with Archidons. Essentially, in a ranged battle, low-health units will be moved behind units with higher health. This increases the lifespan of the units while maintaining full damage potential. Can greatly sway ranged battles in one's favour, depending on timing of cycling. Also used for all the other units to have a higher unit tank damage to give damage for a longer period of time. Openings Very often, the fate of the early-game, and the whole game can be affected by the starting units one purchases. The following are common openings that are feasible in all ranks. These openings are for regular matches, not Deathmatch. Order Order is very versatile with openings, having a good mix of units available for under 500 gold. Sword + Archer Usually used on short maps, provides large amounts of damage potential that is very balanced. Can initiate easy pressuring if the opponent does not attempt a similar strategy. Swords + Miners Usually done on medium maps or long maps. Can be either 2 Swordwrath and 1 Miner or 2 Miners and 1 Swordwrath. Provides a mixed amount of economy and some army to hold off the enemy at the tower. Archer + Miner Usually done on long maps. Kiting Archer has large damage potential over long map due to kiting, thus can easily hold off many threats. Backwards kiting achers have slightly faster movement than forward kiting ones too. Provides a decent army and a decent economy. Chaos Chaos has very few openings, due to the fact that early game their only viable offense is Crawlers since Bombers are kamikazes. Crawlers + Miners Usually 2 crawlers and 2 miners. Provides balance of economy and army. Elementals Earth + Water By starting with a Water and an Earth, the Elemental player can freeze one of the enemy's opening offense unit, and easily pummel the other one with Earth's stunning attack. After this, the Elemental player can quickly get another Earth and get a good offense. The Earths can be transformed to mine later or combined with Water for a Treature, which allows for easy pressuring with the Scorplings or area control with its flower attack spell. Provides a good lead into the mid-game and a very good offense and (potentially later) decent economy, as well as good harassment oppurunities to stop the other person's economy, but is easily beaten because of the bad economy and low health of the Treature. Air Using the Air start, one can dominate the sky in early game as Archidon s are not so powerful against Air. The Air starters usually target the enemy's miners to force the enemy to garrison, causing economy disadvantage. If the enemy upgrades a Castle Archer, the user will stay guard at the middle tower, gaining economy advantage. This start is usually used in a small map. Earth x3 This starter can gain advantage on both economy and army as the Earth can be used to stun the enemy's army and are a massive threat when massed, just like the Swordwrath mass. While choosing the injured ones to morph into Elemental miners, the user will gain economy advantage and more Earths can be trained. Due to the less training time of the Earth, it can be used on emergency situation to turn the tide. Common Strategies A list of commonly seen strategies. Click this sentence for the original forum topic. Some things may be slightly re-worded or changed in this page compared to the forum topic. 'Spearton Rush' Information This strategy usually starts by going for a quick Spearton for the opening. This is accomplished by using both Miners to quickly pray for mana. Someone using this would hold a defensive position and use only a portion of their Speartons (keeping the rest hidden) until they have as many Speartons as their population allows. Once this point is reached, the person using this strategy would attempt to run past all units and attack the statue, quickly destroying it. Countering Someone using this strategy will usually hold a defensive position, allowing you to take the tower. Using the tower spawn, you can harass their miners, slowing them down and forcing them to deplete more resources on damaged units and defensives, etc. To counter the actual rush, if you have the tower, place two miner walls as close to the tower as possible to delay them. During this delay, your units can attack the Speartons. When one is destroyed, build another closer to your statue to constantly delay them. At your actual castle, Resilience will double the amount of time it takes Speartons to destroy the statue, while triple castle archers will deal massive splash damage. Feasible units to use are Albowtrosses and Magikill. A few Albowtrosses with blazing bolts will do extreme damage to Speartons, quickly disposing of them. Magikill can be positioned on the statue so that they can cast an electric wall on themselves. This will protect both themselves and the statue from Speartons attacking it, as they would recieve massive damage if they do so. Poison will help wear them down and a single blast centered on a group of Speartons will remove an entire bar of health from all of them. 'Spearcher (Spear + Archer)' This strategy has changed immensely since the auto-shield bash patch. The pre-auto-shield bash version is at the forum topic for legacy purposes. Only the post-auto-shield bash version will be here. Information Spearcher is highly used in the current metagame. It is simple and effective and almost any start can be morphed into this strategy. With 6 Speartons (One Line) one using this strategy can create a very effective line of defense. Using Shield Wall and Shield Bash (Automatic, which is what made this strategy so prevalent) the Speartons form a very difficult-to-penetrate defense which is highly mobile. Having essentially 10 bars of health for each Spearton which is Armoured, it is incredibly tough to take down, especially with Meric support healing them. Projectiles will be easily shrugged off and you would need at least than 6 melee units to actually get through the wall (6 will be stunned with each bash) and those melee units must be able to survive a volley of arrows fired at them. Countering With the automatic shield bash, this is incredibly difficult to counter. An obvious solution would be to have possibly one or two full grown giants tank arrows for Albowtrosses with blazing bolts firing down at the Speartons or Archidonis. Of course, the Speartons will most likely assume an offense and rush one of the giants, wearing it down quickly. It is also possible to constantly harass the wall to wear it down until it dies, but this would be difficult if they use Meric support. 'Giant Mass' Information Giants have extreme health and damaging potential, esepcially if the user of this strategy cycles weakened giants to the back of the army. Used due to the simplicity associated with simply making giants and moving them forwards. Countering This is commonly done with Enslaved Giants because Chaos Giants can easily be kited to death (An exception to this is when Chaos giants are massed in such numbers that they no longer allow you to run past them, though they are still vunurable to poke). Thus, due to their ability to only hit one unit at a time, A mass of raging Swordwrath , or a Spearton Rush could work. Due to the fact that Giants are armoured, mass Albowtrosses protected by giants would destroy giants. Sometimes though, there will be a mage for exactly these units, in which case Shadowrath support may be needed in the form of Shinobi. Magikill can deal massive damage with Electric Wall on the extremely slow Giants. However, the easiest way to counter this mass is not allowing it to happen by preventing the miners from mining gold through economy harassment. 'Archer Mass' Information Usually started with the dual Archidonis start, which is done by setting both miners to gold and buying only a single Archidonis to begin. Leftover gold would be enough for a second when miners bring in first gold batch. Dual Archer start is usually a surprise to the middle ranks, which is probably the basis behind the strategy. Eventually, melee units will be brought in if the opponent starts to bring archers. The trade off of one Swordwrath for an Archidonis is worth it. Someone using this strategy will implement guerilla hit and run tactics to wear down your army. If you chase them, your units will be kited, killing many units that try to get close. Countering Magikill will be able to quickly kill Archers with any of their spells. In fact, protected Magikill are the main counter to this strategy. 'Ninja Rush' Information Users of this strategy will attempt to get a Shadowrath as soon as possible to sway the game in their favour. Other than that, works very similar to the Spearton Rush in which the Shadowrath will rush straight to the statue. Countering A mass of Raging Swordwrath will reduce the effectiveness of Shinobi and Fixate. Castle Archers will be even deadlier to Shadowrath than to Speartons due to the Shadowrath's lack of armour. Miner Walls prevent economy harassment and slow down the ninjas for a bit. Countering is very similar to countering Spearton Rush. 'Giants + Albowtross' Information These two expensive units will require someone executing this strategy to form a defensive position with extreme economy. The extreme damage outputted by the final army is very difficult to match. Countering A Spearton Rush will be able to run past the Giants and Albowtrosses. They can then destroy the statue with extreme prejudice. If the person using this strategy lacks Shadowrath, Magikill protected by Giants may be able to poison many units, killing many of them and many more with blast and electric wall. Of course, due to the extreme costs of both these units, sufficient economy harassment may prevent the person from executing this strategy in the first place. 'Ninjalbow' Information One using this strategy will morph into it from a normal start. However, it will soon become evident that they are using many miners for mana (as massing Shadowrath and Albowtrosses is very mana intensive) Usually the first unit that can tip off the use of this strategy is a Shadowrath. Countering A very effective counter is Archer Mass, as kiting Archidonis will do heavy damage to chasing Shadowrath and will outrun and outrange Albowtrosses. Another possible counter is Giants and Albowtrosses. By having all your Albowtrosses target the enemy Albowtrosses first, they will lose their ranged capability (your giants protect your own Albowtrosses from a similar fate) and then their Shadowrath will be defenseless against the Albowtrosses. Of course, preventing them from building such an army with economy harassment could be easier. 'Fatty Turtle' Originally Written by jerrytt Information This strategy relies on 5 key units and upgrades: Castle Archer, Spearton Shield Wall, Miner Wall, Merics, and Magikill The idea is that you hold them off with a Swordwrath or two long enough to get a castle archer without denting your economy. Then, tech up to Speartons and buy the shield wall upgrade. You should also get a miner wall. Place the Spearton and wall in front of the second gold row, then get Merics and Speartons to hold off the enemy long enough for you to get a Magikill. One you have your mage, your turtle is complete. You are protected from almost any kind of attack. This can protect you until they (somehow) get a large tech advantage on you. After this, you can safely transition to any other strategy with very little risk. Countering Almost impossible, requires preventing the use of this strategy in the first place, or somehow getting a huge tech advantage to break the turtle. 'Crawler Massing' Contributed by: Java_Script Information A method of continuously queuing and training crawlers in order to overwhelm the enemy or snipe multiple miners. This strategy relies on not getting a single crawler killed early game and soon getting mana for early tech-up for the crawler upgrades and hold the tower. Soon, you go for tower spawn and attack attempting to have the Ghost Jugger tank Castle Archer hits (Assuming they have one) while your crawlers kill as many miners as possible. Countering Not lose any swords early game, garrison weak swords. A high degree of micro is required such as kiting and sword splitting just in case they bring out bombers. A mage is very essential in overcoming this build as crawlers have weak health and are much more prone to spells.In Chaos vs chaos, you can counter this by having 2-4 crawlers as tanking units in case the opponent uses ranged units and a continous output of bombers. Category:Strategy Category:Micro and Macro